Stinging and biting insects are most active during the summer and fall, during which time they pose an increased threat to our health. In fact, stinging insects alone send more than half a million people to the emergency room every year. And, mosquitoes can transmit potentially fatal diseases like West Nile virus, dengue fever and malaria.

Learn more about the stinging and biting insects that are likely to frequent your backyard this summer with the following mosquito facts and facts about wasps and other summer pests.

· Mosquitoes: Only female mosquitoes bite humans, as they need blood to reproduce. They find hosts by detecting body heat and chemical signals, such as the carbon dioxide we exhale. Studies have found that mosquitoes are generally attracted to dark colors, women, beer drinkers and smelly feet.

· Wasps: Wasps feed on sweet liquids and are even known to get drunk off fermenting juice in the late summer. In the autumn, inseminated females will seek places to spend the winter, and may move inside the home, especially if there is a cathedral ceiling present.

· Hornets: European hornets live in colonies that may contain between 200-400 members. They tend to appear in late summer, and unlike most other stinging insects, are active at night. European hornets are attracted to light and will repeatedly bang into lighted windows when it's dark outside.

· Yellow jackets: Yellow jackets live in colonies with up to 4,000 workers, so it's not surprising that their nests can grow to very large sizes. In 2006, a farmer found a yellow jacket nest had engulfed his 1955 Chevrolet, according to NPR.org.